Returning
by Aeroshi
Summary: Sometimes you wish you could start your life over, and not to have mand mistakes you have. Chihiro, now 17 years old, made some mistakes and would do anything to take them back. What happens when she stumbles back into the Spirit World, where things first
1. Default Chapter

**Returning**

Chapter One

By: Aeroshi

Authors Note: This is my first "Spirited Away" fanfic that I have ever written. I've been thinking of writing one since I saw the movie (In 2002) but wanted to wait until I had the movie on DVD so I could watch it again to make sure I had the facts right and such. This fic is going to be about Chihiro's Life After "Spirited Away". It's sort of a continuation about 7 years later. I'm not sure exactly what direction this will go in, but I hope you enjoy it. Please remember to review!

"        " – talking

'          ' – thinking

-     *    -

Night started to fall over the large city as the delicate snowflakes started to fall. The streetlights below flickered to life casting an eerie light on the walls of the nearby buildings.

A single figure looked out a frosted window from far up in an apartment building. The cold air of the room mixed with her warm breath made fog on the window. She took her long brown hair out of the hair band that she had all too often used to hold her hair back. It was purplish-pink in colour, and had a few sparkles in it.

So many memories were held in that headband. Memories that were fading away day by day, just like her childhood that seemed like merely a dream now.

She walked away from the window, closing the curtains after doing so. The young woman, now about 17 years of age, wrapped the dark blue blanket tighter around her small form. Her chestnut coloured eyes searched the room, hoping for the slightest hint of movement.

Nothing. Nothing in the room showed anyone other then herself was in the room, and that's what made her sigh. The house seemed so empty and alone at night. It was depressing. She worked two jobs during the morning as both a waitress in a local breakfast and bed, and her second job consisted of her serving meals for a catering service. After doing that she would go home, have a ten minute lunch and race off to her last job of the day at a nursing home where she would take care of the elderly.

She only had joy from one of these jobs, and that was at the nursing home. She loved talking to the older people, and just listening to their stories and what was on their minds. But she had always thought of quitting and taking up another shift at the bed and breakfast. The money there paid better and she would have enough to pay off the credit card debt she was in from all the high school books and courses that she had stopped attending.

Walking into the bathroom she looked into the mirror and sighed. Her mascara was running and her uniform was wrinkled. She picked up a face cloth and let warm water from the sink run over it before wiping the running mascara off of her face.

How many days had she done the same routine now? When she was exactly 16 she got married to the person who was the love of her life, Tomi. She had met him on the first day at her new school while she was in fourth grade. Back then he was tall and gangly. His black eyes matched his equally black hair that was a little above his ears.

But just like the seasons he had changed. His weight matched his height, and his eyes were lighter. His hair a little longer and in a different style.

She looked much the same in her eyes. She was still taller then she should be for her weight. She was about 5 '4. Short, she had always been short. She just stopped growing in eight grade, and was still the same height now. Her chestnut hair grew longer so it was now just above her elbows. She was a nice looking woman, yet she never was happy with herself.

She didn't know why she wasn't; its just whenever she looked into the mirror, someone foreign seemed to be staring back at her. When she was younger her eyes were always filled with no worries, joy, and hope. But nowadays all those emotions seemed to have died out, leaving her as an empty shell of a once carefree human.

The phone rang once; twice; three times before she picked it up. "Hello, Chihiro speaking."

"Hey, it's me." A deep male voice said on the other side of the phone line.

"Oh. Hello Tomi. When are you going to get home?" She asked, hoping for an answer other then what she usually got. She hoped he would be home before 4am today.

"Well…" She sighed already knowing that she wouldn't see him tonight. "I'm sorry but it looks like I'm going to have to pull an all-nighter again tonight. Work overload and Mr. Ano won't let me lave until I get the claims checked out. Their due in two days and not even halfway done yet."

"I leave some Ramen in the refrigerator." She said as she hung up the phone. She hadn't had a conversation with him in person for months, it didn't even seem like they were married. She wanted to start a family, but when she was at work during the morning hours he was at home sleeping, and when he was at work during the night hours she was at home, waiting.

She walked back into the kitchen but was stopped in mid-step as the phone started to ring again. "Probably just Tomi trying to apologize for having to stay late again." She continued her venture to kitchen and took the pot of noodles off of the oven burner. She listened to the phone as it rung six times before the answering machine picked up.

"Hello, thank you for calling the Shintaro residence. We can not come to the phone at his time, if you leave your name, telephone number, and message we will call you back as soon as possible. Thank you." The beep then sounded.

Silence on the message was there for a few moments before the sound of mumbling and distorted and broken words was heard before all fell silent and the phone 'clicked' sounding that the caller had hung up.

She looked into the room. Had what she heard been real, or was her mind playing tricks on her. She walked over to the answering machine and watched as a red button blinked on and off. Written under the button were the words "Message Pending (if flashing)".

She pressed the button. "First new message, Received today January 12th at 12:47pm." The message with the mumbling then replayed.

Was this someone's idea of a prank phone call? If so they should learn to speak clearly. She pressed the red button again and it stopped flashing. But as she did so the phone started to ring once again.

She jumped, a little startled, before picking up the phone. "Hello, Chihiro speaking."

"Hello Hunny!" A woman's voice sounded on the other side of the phone.

"Mom?" Chihiro questioned, not having heard from her mother since she left.

"Yes! I know this is an awkward time to be calling, but me and your father discussed it and decided that you should come over for the rest of the month. We already bought you train tickets, you can pick them up whenever you decide to come."

The phone then went dead. She hit it on the table once and sighed. "Must've forgotten to pay the phone bill this month." She walked into another room which was a bedroom. Taking out a large black suitcase she took some clothes out of a closet and put them in there. Then she put in a brush, toothbrush, and all of her other belongings that she had.

She looked at the half empty suit case. It seemed like she was missing a lot from the looks of it. But she wasn't missing a thing; this was all she had, and all she ever would have.

She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a black winter jacket off of the chair and put it on, buttoning the front of it. She slipped on a pair of sneakers and took a pen out of her pocket. She scribbled a note on the back of a receipt. It read:

_Tomi,_

_            I'm going to my parents' house. I'm sorry to say but as I look at my life right now, nothing is how I want it. I want a family, a house, a husband who's around at least some of the time. My life right now is nothing as I hoped it would be. I wanted to go to collage so I could help support my family, and only have to work one job._

_            I'm sorry but I will be sending divorce papers in the mail someday within the next two weeks._

_                                                                                    With love.                                                                                                                                  Chihiro_

She left the note on the counter as she picked up her bag and walked out of the door, leaving her keys to the house on the table.

She walked down the many flights of stairs before reaching the bottom. She pushed open the front door and stepped into the bitter cold snow. The white snowflakes fell around her as she walked down the street. Luckily the train station was only a few blocks away.

The cold air nipped at her nose as she trudged through the snow which was now at four inches. That's when she heard the whistle of a train, and the creaking of the tracks as it stopped at the station. She quickened her pace and walked over to the ticket booth.

"I have tickets here. My name is Chihiro…" she paused. Her parents never liked her husband and always told her to get rid of him. They probably put it under their last name. "Ogino." She finished.

The man searched through a computer and then pressed a button and a ticket came out of a slot. "You want the third stop." He said handing her the ticket.

She took the ticket and muttered a thank you before walking over to the train, still carrying her bag with her.

As she boarded the train a man held his hand out for her ticket. She handed it to him and he shredded it with a ticket-shredder. She then walked past him and down the isle of the almost empty train. Only a few others were there. She saw a woman and man with three children sleeping across from her. A man was a ways down the train, and another man was typing on a laptop near the front of the compartment.

She put the bag next to her and sat down in a seat. She had been on this train many times before. The last time she had went on it though was a little more then a year ago, right after she had gotten married.

She sighed; how she wished her life had been different. She wouldn't have had to drop out of high school, get a job, get divorced, or move out of her parents' house. She would give almost anything to change the choices she had made.

The train had creaked to a halt for the second time that night. The doors opened and the two adults with the children stirred awake. The man looked over to her.

"What stop are we at?" He asked while yawning and stretching his arms in the air.

She snapped out of her daze and looked over to him. "City limits." She said as she looked out the window.

The man looked over to his wife and picked up two of the three kids. "Thanks." He mumbled to Chihiro, still half asleep by the looks of him. The woman picked up the last remaining child and both of them exited the train.

'Only one more stop.' She thought to herself as she looked at the snow which had not been falling as hard for the last hour and a half.

The trains' doors then closed again and then lurched forward once more. Chihiro looked down the train to see only the man with the laptop. 'Everyone else must've already disembarked at their stops.'

Time seemed to slow down, and minutes grew to seem like hours. The train slowed down, stopping at the train station in the suburbs. Chihiro jerked awake at the sound of the squeaking breaks and looked around and then yawned. She picked up her bag and exited the train. She only had a few minutes walk from here; her parents' house was right down the street.

As she walked towards her destination she realized that it had started to snow again. She hugged her coat tighter to herself and put the hood of it on her head.

After a couple of minutes she reached a blue house that looked identical to the others on the block, except for the colour.

She walked up to the front door and paused as she reached the welcome mat. Was this really what she wanted? What would people say when they found out she and her husband got divorced. They said it wouldn't last when they got married, and it didn't. She shook the thoughts from her head. She just wanted her old life back, and she was going to get it.

She knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer, no one came though. She tried again and the hall light flickered to life inside the house. She heard footsteps that were coming down the stairs and held her breath.

A tall greying man answered the door. She smiled at him and he smiled back. She dropped her bag and ran over to him, hugging him. Tears came from her eyes, not tears of sadness; but tears of joy. Finally she felt like she did something right.

-     *     -

Well, that's all for now. I'll put the next chapter out once I finish typing it. The more reviews I get the faster I'll get it out, just because it motivates me to start typing again. xDD Until next time! Ja!


	2. Important Notice

**July 29, 2003******

Im sorry to say, but this fanfiction is going to be put on hold for a number of weeks. The reason for this is that I am working on a new fanfic that I want to come out very well and I would rather not work on too many others while I work on that one, so this will be one of the ones that I will throw in the shelf and let it get dusty for a while.

It will probably be back up with chapters coming around August 20th, 2003. If I descide on an earlyier time then that, it will be up sooner, so keep your eyes opened. I hope see you all around August 20th.

-Aeroshi-


End file.
